


All Night (Night Time Reading Remix)

by sebastian2017



Category: X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Comfort Reading, Domestic, Fluff, M/M, Nightmares, soft boyfriends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-06-24 18:35:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19729423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sebastian2017/pseuds/sebastian2017
Summary: Erik can't sleep. Too many nightmares. Charles reads to him.





	All Night (Night Time Reading Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Bit of Charles and Erik](https://archiveofourown.org/works/836185) by [Lamia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lamia/pseuds/Lamia). 
  * In response to a prompt by [Lamia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lamia/pseuds/Lamia) in the [xmen_remix_madness2019](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/xmen_remix_madness2019) collection. 



> This is a remix for Chapter 9 of Lamia's 'A Bit of Charles and Erik'
> 
> Enjoy!

_ “Erik?” _

_ “Hmm?” _

_ “Do you want to call it a night?”  _

_ “No, I’m fine here, Charles… Just keep reading.”  _

Charles nods and does exactly that. It’s late, incredibly so. Charles isn’t sure exactly how late, but he knows it must be far past midnight by now. They’ve been at it for a while. Erik doesn’t often need this, but Charles knows the nightmares are an everyday occurrence. He can’t imagine how badly they must be for Erik to let this vulnerability show. 

He can sense as Erik drifts off to sleep, fast asleep with his head rested up against Charles’ shoulder. Charles suspects he’ll end up with a spot of drool on his shirt, but that’s perfectly fine by him. He’ll gladly do it, just like he’ll gladly keep reading to his sleeping audience. On nights like this, Erik always starts shifting and waking as soon as Charles stops reading. He’ll inevitably say that it’s fine, he’s feeling better and Charles should go to bed, but Charles knows better than that. He’ll read all night if that’s what it takes.

It’s what he does, in fact. Read and read and read without much sense of the book’s plot. It’s just words to fill the air and distract Erik’s mind from its nightmares. Erik wakes up in the early morning, fully awake in the blink of an eye, as he always is. Charles would have preferred he sleep longer, but he knows these five hours or so are better than most of Erik’s night.

Erik blinks up at him, groggy and confused. “You’re still reading.”

“Indeed I am.” Now that Erik is awake, Charles closes the book and reaches for a glass of water on the nightstand. His voice has gone a bit hoarse from overuse. “Did you sleep well.”

“Yes. Did you sleep at all, Charles?” Erik asks.

Charles just shrugs. “I’ll take a nap later.”

“Oh. I’m sorry…”

“Sorry? What on Earth for?”

“All of this. Being needy, forcing you to stay awake.”

“Erik.” Charles leans down, holding Erik’s face in his hands as gently as he can. He kisses his hair first, then his forehead. His temple and cheek. His nose and his jawline. He ends at Erik’s lips, soft and chaste. “There is  _ nothing  _ I wouldn’t do for you. I love you and I hate seeing you struggle with your own mind. If this is something I can do to help you feel better, I am more than happy to do it for hours on end.”

Erik sighs. “I don’t understand why you do. Why you… you know.” Love has always been a difficult word for Erik to say, Charles knows.

“And that’s okay. You don’t have to. I’ll stay up all night to remind you, if I need to.”

**Author's Note:**

> for questions, prompts, or chatting I can be found on tumblr at [sebbym17](http://sebbym17.tumblr.com/)


End file.
